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Shattered (Iron Druid Chronicles #): A Book Review

*Contains spoilers for anyone who hasn’t read previous books in the series*

Shattered is the latest book in Kevin Hearne’s increasing popular Iron Druid Chronicles. Seven books in and these books are still wonderfully magical and action-packed, without sacrificing story. This is the first book of Hearne’s that was released in hardcover, but that doesn’t really matter to me, because I would never give up Luke Daniel’s excellent narration.

Atticus, Granuaile , and, of course, Oberon are back. They are joined by two new characters, Owen Kennedy, Atticus’s arch druid whom he saves from an island of frozen time, and Orlaith (Orlagh? Orla? What? I listened to the Audiobook and for the life of me cannot find how this was spelled in the book–if you can pick up your copy and verify, hit the comments, please), Granuaile’s new talking Irish Wolfhound. The story is told from the three different perspectives, with each of the druids getting pretty-much-equal storytime. Atticus is searching for who’s been plotting his demise, while Granuaile travels to India to save her father from a demon, and Owen comes to terms with the fact that two-thousand years have passed in a single moment for him.

As I was going along with the story, in the beginning, and middle for that matter, I had the feeling that this was a bridge book. It was meant to get the reader over a hump in the over-arching storyline, answering some small questions in order to move the story forward. It seemed as if it were just preparing readers for a big event which would happen in the next book, but nope. Things quickly and dramatically come to a head. Confrontation happens in a big way, and a huge storyline is dealt with.

Also, Granuaile’s side story of her journey to India turns out not to be a side story so much as a link to another of the big, bad story lines. So while some people may see the beginning of this book as meandering, everything really comes together and has a purpose.

This book includes *deep breath* Hindu gods and demons, Norse gods, Irish gods, faeries, yetis, a selkie, Jesus, and a partridge in a pear tree. But it works! However, this is not a book you can just dive into. If you haven’t read the other Iron Druid books, you will be left with your head spinning. If you’re interested in a bad-ass urban fantasy series, check out the Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne.